Sex Worker Art  / Sex Worker Survival

Since our founding 15 years ago, a major component of SWOP Chicago’s mission has been to create affirming cultural spaces where local sex workers can enjoy and express ouselves, free from the violence and stigma that so often defines the rest of our lives. For most of that time, Chicago Sex Workers Art Show has been an annual highlight of the SWOP social calendar. No one anticipated that our opening on March 7, 2020 would be the last public event we threw – or that most members of our community attended – for a year and counting. Within a week, Illinois was under a stay-at-home order, Agitator had closed its space, and SWAS went virtual.

As we approached March 3, 2021 – International Sex Workers Rights Day, which the Art Show has traditionally marked – we knew we wanted to come up with ways to showcase sex-worker talent, even if that couldn’t include an in-person event. TheChicago SWAS 2021 zine and online gallery are results of that brainstorm.

The pandemic has impacted sex workers in unique ways. With our livelihoods criminalized, many could not collect government stimulus checks, or turn to other sources of aid for lost income. In response, the global sex work community did what we do best and came to the aid of our own, establishing dedicated relief funds by and for the most impacted among us.

We encourage donations to:

@chicaghoesforsxwork

Brave Space Alliance

Lysistrata Emergency Fund

SWOP Chicago

Kathy Rosenfeld
SWOP Chicago
March 2021

On behalf of Agitator Gallery, I very much want to express our gratitude to Sex Worker’s Outreach Project (SWOP) Chicago for choosing to partner with us.

As both a national organization and a local Chicago entity, SWOP is dedicated to the central tenet of Rights Not Rescue. To that end, SWOP is run and governed by those of all sexual identities who have been or are currently engaged in sex work. The individuals of SWOP have established a mission that gives voice and empowerment to those engaged in sex work. Education and advocacy are the means by which stigma and misinformation are replaced. The political, legal, and ground level ramifications of this work are dedicated to ensuring the rights and safety any one of us can readily demand and expect in a free society.

On a very practical, ground level, SWOP Chicago serves a diverse set of neighborhoods in Chicago from its Red Lightbulb Van. They provide much needed materials and education for/on safe sex work and safe substance use. 

Working with Kathy and SWOP Chicago has been a deeply rewarding experience. Kathy, the staff of SWOP Chicago (there aren’t many of them) and the participants of prior SWOP shows have consistently been gracious and patient and wholly dedicated to the shared mission of SWOP and Agitator Gallery, in creating a space where the dignity and human rights of all are both respected and protected. 

Luna Rail
Agitator Co-operative Gallery
March 2021

Lulu Bourdieu (she/her) is a Chicago based sex worker, writer, artist, and sociologist. She draws much of her inspiration from her personal experiences that come from navigating her work, art, and seizure disorder. She believes that sex workers are the most badass, resilient people on the planet and that sex worker rights are human rights. 

I'm a self taught artist, working mostly with acrylic and watercolor.  It's just like when I'm working with rope, binding a subject: my hands know what to do with the brush.  I don't second guess myself on the canvas. 

Chicago-based Sugar Baby.

Chicago-based Sugar Baby.

I am a sworker who started as a survival sexworker about 4 years ago and felt alone and scared without guidance on how to do "this."

This piece is made with copic marker and pen. It is more a fun piece that marks my journey into doing domme sex work. I'm quite often seen as a sweet and "nice" girl by strangers and it's fun to have this other side of me that is cruel and calculated. I had started swork doing FS and it wasn't something I enjoyed, servicing men, so I began to learn more about domming. I have been much happier and having fun with my work since I made that change for myself.

As I hold my face in my hands, she blinks back and smiles. What does it mean to insert myself and become my own body?
___________
Ava Pop (b.1989) is a Chicago based new media performance artist. She uses video, performance, and technology to reconstruct dynamics of spectacle and intimacy through eroticized mediation of body. In ritualized actions, Pop addresses consumption and voyeurism through forms of reconstruction of her body. She is an alumni of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Film, Video, New Media, and Animation Department and currently lives and works in Chicago. Pop has exhibited work at Links Hall (Chicago, IL), Sullivan Galleries, Zhou B Art Center, and ACRE Gallery (Chicago, IL); the Supernova Digital Animation Festival in Denver, Colorado, and recently a MANA Contemporary New Media Artist-in-residence.

An ouroboros consuming the consumed, I am a shimmering mirage that has materialized into a reborn palimpsest.

kat savage is a Chicago based photographer who works within the world of sex work. Inspired by Renaissance paintings, iconography, and the intertwining history of religion and art, kat’s work plunges into the divine power of femininity and sexuality. Demanding the viewer to question their own judgements surrounding sex work, she challenges the Madonna-Whore dichotomy that’s born from the prevailing cultural whorephobia built into our society. 

kat is graduated from the the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020 with a BFA in photography. Introduced into the world of sex work by her close friends, she works in collaboration and constant dialogue within the community.